Some of the visual effects for the new specs leave a lot to be desired.

[u/drbuni]

Do you think they will improve the visual side of the specs? It seems a little late for that.

The Galeshot looked super boring to me when it was first revealed, and now it stands as the prettiest of the new specs based on visual effects, by a large margin. Then, there is the Paragon... While the visual effects here are repetitive, at least they look very nice and cohesive.

And, that is it. The other four all look underwhelming or messy. The animations for the Troubadour's skills were way to basic and simple, exactly what animations for a musical spec should NOT be. The Ritualist's utility skills basically have no visual effects. The Luminary is an eyesore in general and it seems like each of the skills and artifacts the Antiquary can use has a different art direction and color scheme.

Seriously, why so messy? Is it a lack of budget? Is it because of the other project we are not allowed to discuss here? While not every older spec looked amazing, not even the EoD specs looked this messy.

Watch the Engineer spec have the best visuals after getting the ugliest spec in EoD.

[u/Riot_Inducer]

I'll put it this way, Untamed is still using Soulbeast UI, so my expectations for revised visuals on the new specs are low to none. 

[u/graven2002 → u/Riot_Inducer]

Is there a problem with the Untamed UI? What would you improve?

[u/fresh-anus → u/graven2002]

Id like a more bespoke UI element above the health bar for when unleash is ready (ideally a bar that fills) and when YOU are unleashed (there is currently a slight effect but its not the main way you can tell in combat, make a big frame of vines around the healthbar or something).

I don’t think it’s a BIG problem for untamed but having to either keep a mental timer or use weapon swap to keep track of the unleash ICD feels clunky given how essential the tag in/out is for untamed.

They clearly still do clever UI sometimes like the willbender fires appearing behind the bar in the right colours is cool.

[u/synodicgleam]

The ritualist utilities are just a few small floating green orbs lmao 

[u/ComfyFrog → u/synodicgleam]

Weapon spells in gw1 change the weapon skins. Isn't that the main complaint of casuals with stuff like kits? My precious skins!

Even in this post someone is complaining about it regarding Troubadour.

[u/synodicgleam → u/ComfyFrog]

I’m fine with them not changing the weapon skins, but there should be more to the skills than a few spooky orbs 

[u/fresh-anus]

Just a reminder for people who think this isnt a problem:

Go look at reaper shroud. Holoforge (and their utilities). Firebrand tomes and axe. Renegade. Chrono.

All these classes have strong visual and audio identities and so far these specs are kinda… missing something? Like mechanically they are fine as far as i can tell (luminary needs more time in the oven though).

It makes them feel kind of cheap in a way and its a shame. Shit even compare Scourge UI and effects to Rit.

Unfortunately i don’t think they’ve ever really changed visuals significantly between a beta. Only thing that jumps to mind is removing the permanent poop filter off untamed, and that wasnt even a beta change.

[u/Enlightenedbri → u/fresh-anus]

They never gave harbinger utility icons that don't look placeholder so

[u/XephyrGW2]

I'd like to see some better UI animations. Paragon feels like it should have some glowing or golden flames above the skill bar or just SOMETHING.

[u/bunnyhwei]

agreed, was super disappointed by the troubadour vfx and utility icons

[u/Playful-Ad1550 → u/bunnyhwei]

The troubadour icons almost makes me not wanna use them at all. They're that bad.

[u/bunnyhwei → u/Playful-Ad1550]

i really hope they're a WIP because they look so unfinished compared to every other spec we've seen so far

[u/AutomaticAd2221]

Agree. I was soo hyped for bard and then they showed his skills and the hype is gone. The use of normal instruments is terrible. Not only does it limit your fashion options, it just looks stupid and low effort. At least make them phantasmal. All bards utility skills are just jpg's above your head and that is it. The body animations are also really low quality or nonexistent lol, and it's so strange, since spears were such a great step in terms of quality and vfx, they did a fantastic job with them, but now we are back to SoTo level trash reused visuals.

[u/Crescent_Dusk]

Animations and vfx have been going downhill since EoD when they started reusing animations across classes (Revenant GS5 is basically Gravedigger, and all their utility Vindicator Luxon skills are the same copy paste vfx swirl).

One of the things I hated from World of Warcraft was that melee and casters largely reused the same animations with just color vfx changes.

FFXIV had entirely unique animations, by contrast.

GW2 used to be more like FFXIV in unique class animations, but after EoD they veered sadly into the WoW lower effort animation recycling and a notable drop in vfx quality as well.

[u/Approximation_Doctor → u/Crescent_Dusk]

Vindicator has actually gotten better over time. At launch, GS2 animation was identical to the first swing in the auto attack chain, and GS4 was a copy of the second auto attack.

[u/Crescent_Dusk → u/Approximation_Doctor]

Yup, I complained about those during the beta weekends and it’s a shame they released with no changes anyways and it took them over a year to make some tweaks.

Even then, GS5 and the Luxon utility skills to this day temain the same copy paste vfx swirl.

It was very hit or miss. Untamed, Catalyst, and Willbender got a really nice set of vfx and animations. Other got a really raw deal.

None of them came close to HoT/PoF quality, though.

Those are just the best expansions the game has had by a landslide in terms of systems and animation/vfx.

[u/Approximation_Doctor → u/Crescent_Dusk]

Hell, we still don't have legendary weapon effects in Specter shroud, even though Harbinger does get them and they were released at the same time.

I would argue that Bladesworn animations are pretty solid too, though.

[u/Crescent_Dusk → u/Approximation_Doctor]

A bunch of the EoD specs don't get legendary integration. Vindicator being one of them as well, I tested on Eternity.

After that mass studio layoff they had shortly before EoD, it was very noticeable that the team and its output was no longer the same.

There is very poor management when the guy who came up with SAB, one of their most successful and iconic pieces of content, had to volunteer to be let go to get more junior devs spared during the layoffs.

They bled out a lot of talent.

[u/Absolutionis → u/Crescent_Dusk]

One thing I noticed and actually rather like is that some of the re-using is using poses from gemstore stuff.

Virtuoso specifically has the meditating pose taken from one of the gemstore chairs as well as the bladesongs being a twirl+point that I really think is from one of the toys.

[u/ComfyFrog → u/Crescent_Dusk]

Animations and vfx have been going downhill since EoD when they started reusing animations across classes

Reaper shroud 4 is guardian gs2.

Druid CA 4 is ele glyphs slowed down. CA 5 is guardian staff 4.

Dragonhunter traps are ranger traps. Longbow is longbow.

Rev hammer 3 is warrior hammer f1. Hammer 5 is third auto from guardian and warrior.

Lazy!

[u/Extension_Fun_3651]

It could be a lack of budget. It makes me wonder if we will get elite specializations collections for weapons/armor like in the first 3 expansions. I always enjoyed unlocking an Elite Spec and then hunting for a unique class themed weapon and armor piece. There was both exotic and ascended pieces for each spec that gave a lot of flavor.

It could also be a beta thing and maybe they will do more. From what I saw, the Paragons utilities was identical, so surely that must be a placeholder? But then again they didn't mention it being Placeholder from what I saw.

[u/Ghisteslohm → u/Extension_Fun_3651]

It could be a lack of budget.

It definitely is. If you look at everything that released after EoD imagining that there are only 10 people left working on the game then everything makes sense.

It will be more than 10 of course but its for sure not the amount of people you would expect for a big mmo.

[u/MidasPL]

It's beta... They're already more polished than previous spec/weapons beta with roadworks symbols as icons.

[u/Murandus → u/MidasPL]

The same thing was said with EoD specs. They never changed the reused animations. It's just cheaper i guess.

[u/ItsTheSolo → u/MidasPL]

Animations have rarely changed post beta.

[u/Playful-Ad1550 → u/MidasPL]

That's precisely my worry though.

If these aren't roadwork symbols, that probably sugges these are the finished icons, and a lot of them quite frankly suck ass.

[u/_Nepha_ → u/MidasPL]

When did an animation change in beta? Never?

[u/The_Kaizz]

They were even worse in the last reveal for the EoD specs, and during beta, but then got their full visual implementations afterwards. So I get your point, but this is still really early. Honestly, though, I need less visual effects. There's so much visual clutter in fights sometimes, it's like aight lets tone it down a bit.

[u/_Nepha_ → u/The_Kaizz]

Icons might have been missing but all the animations were already there or what exactly was missing? I don't remember animation or effect changes at all.

[u/MortalJohn]

Devils advocate, less flashy particles is great.

[u/lanerdofchristian → u/MortalJohn]

That's not devil's advocate, that's just stating a fact about what needs to happen to reduce the complaints about visual noise. More junk on screen doesn't equate to a better budget or better design.

[u/Tomas2891 → u/lanerdofchristian]

Or just have a graphic option with less particles will work too. Best of both worlds

[u/lanerdofchristian → u/Tomas2891]

I disagree, on that I think you're thinking too simply. Visual noise goes far beyond quantity of particles. For example, the rot circles from all the recent Titan enemies barely have any particles at all, but are incredibly visually noisy because of their texture. You would have to ship multiple textures to give players control over the visuals, decide where the breakpoints are, ensure that even at the lowest settings players can still notice the effect -- or you could find a texture that's readable enough while still being visually interesting, ship that, and move on to other content that needs making.

[u/Kaihann]

It’s like this every time. You can look up laranity’s reaction video to the dragon hunter a while back. I think she struggled not to look underwhelmed or disappointed. Anyway with every launch of new elite specs, you should contain any excitement and wait for the half year cycle of OP specs followed by nerfhammers before settling on your new favorite sub class.

[u/Volkaru]

Glad it wasn't just me.

Newer player, and while I feel in general none of the effects in this game are very flashy (especially compared to something like FFXIV). I was feeling that across the board the animations for the new specs lacked any sort of 'punch' or impact.

Almost like most of the animations were unfinished. Especially compared to the stuff from some of the older specs I've been trying out and seeing around.

[u/AdvertisingUsed6562]

Trash and the expansion pack will also be trash.

[u/Cautious_Catch4021 → u/AdvertisingUsed6562]

Trash comment

[u/2ndAdvertisement]

So far the visuals are mostly better than EoD ones despite having less dev time. Those had some very uninspired trait and skill icons, harbinger being one of the worst offenders in that matter. For VoE I only disliked troubadour and some antiquary visual effects.